Has Roy Hodgson missed a trick in the preparation of the England team for its probable drubbing at the World Cup?

The man who claimed to have saved the Sky Blues three years ago was only a goal-kick away as the squad trained in Portugal, ready to be called off the bench.

Former City chairman Ken Dulieu, as City fans will recall only too clearly, wouldn’t have needed a second bidding to hop over the fence from his luxury villa.

He lives next to the football training complex at Val do Lobo and would have welcomed a chance to put on a white shirt and show Wayne how to take a free kick properly.

He has the experience, having arranged for the Sky Blues to do their pre-season training there in 2011 and famously turning out in initialled kit himself.

His advice to then manager Andy Thorn obviously gave him a taste for coaching-a-coach as he went on to pop up in the dug-out at the Ricoh. Hodgson would be well advised to adopt the Dulieu one-for-one game strategy before too long.

Shout out loudly that you’ve “turned things around” then do just that yourself and head for the sun.

Roger Bailey, elected in Cheylesmore, during the election count and announcements at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Grass skirts being shed, St George slaying an opponent and a strange case of Groundhog Day at the final reckoning...who said the local elections were boring?

Zzzzz... OK, so they were still achingly dull with only the slightest of changes.

But it was all happening in Cheylesmore ward where city tour guide and St George re-enactment specialist Roger Bailey triumphed for the Tories. He polled the most votes (1,777) just 39 clear of the next highest and well clear of the vanquished sitting Labour councillor Harjinder Sehmi.

Not too much celebrating in the blue corner, however, as two seats were being contested and Labour turned the tables when Richard Brown took the second, at the expense of the Tories’ Shabbir Ahmed.

Grass skirts is the name given at the election count to blocks of 20 voting slips, stacked in tiers which – if you’ve got a vivid imagination – can look like skirt layers. The method is only used for mixed voting slips, those that carry votes for more than one party, and is done for ease of counting.

Or not, as was the case when somehow the stacks appear to have been miscounted leading to a shortfall of 100 votes being recorded – sparking a delay as a recount took place. With just 39 votes in the balance it’s possible the initial mistake could have altered the outcome.

And finally, Groundhog Day. Same ward, 2011 election, and 200 voting slips go astray, only to be discovered under a table after a long delay. Spooky.